The Red Battle Flyer

At eleven, Manfred von Richthofen climbed a church steeple by its lightning conductor and tied a handkerchief to the top. Ten years later, it was still flying there.

In this 1917 memoir, the future fighter pilot begins far from the sky, among the country estates of Silesia and a family shaped by horses, military service and sudden losses. Manfred recalls the cadet who disliked lessons, loved risky mischief, and was impatient to join the cavalry; then the familiar routines of army life give way to the war no one around him quite believes will come. His recollections are brisk, candid and often wry, even when a horse, a river or a reckless leap puts him in danger. What will become of the cavalryman when the war takes him somewhere entirely new?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.